The blackness of Arigna Mines

Looking at the green prairies of Ireland, it is hard to imagine this country in any industrial context. I was surprised that Ireland had developed a coal industry for centuries. There were dozens of mines in the mountains of Arigna (co. Roscommon). One mine is now the Arigna Mines Experience Museum.

The museum location is in a modern building that looks like pieces of anthracite. The admission fee is 13 euros per adult.

The tour guides are former miners - aged men with difficult accents and a rather peculiar sense of humor. All tourists get disposable hair caps and white helmets, and we set off into the darkness of the mountain.

Coal mining in Ireland began in the 17th century. Under the layers of bog, deep in the mountains, sandstone alternates with good layers of coal. The surroundings of the Arigna mountains, not suitable for agriculture, became the center of coal mining in Ireland.

Even though the working conditions were tough (the miners had to work lying in the water, in narrow crevices of the rock, using hand tools to extract valuable coal), there was no shortage of workers at the mine. During the Great Famine, working at the mine saved the lives of thousands of people in the surrounding counties, making it possible to feed their families.

In the middle of the 20th century, the Irish electric supplier ESB built a power plant in the midlands that ran entirely on Irish coal. The Arigna mines delivered 55,000 tons of coal to the station annually. Unfortunately, when the natural reserves of high-quality "black diamonds" coal were depleted, the power plant had to be closed, and the mining stopped. It was the year 1990.

During the tour, tourists walk along the narrow corridors of the mines, see the authentic tools of the miners, and are horrified by the conditions in which people had to earn a piece of bread. In the mine, you can hear the murmur of water all the time, and various mosses grow on the beams supporting the vaults without a single ray of sun. The tour goes through only one level of the mine, although the corridors go deep into the mountain - in the green hills around the visitor center, you can see the sealed entrances to the mines and water streams.

The tour lasts only 45 minutes, but you walk out of the dark corridors under the rainy sky with some relief. Irish history is fraught with many more exciting things - in green lands, in cold stone castles, and even in dungeons!